


Better Than Happier

by jupiter_james



Series: Tiny Whiskey Guns and Money Universe [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Beach Vacation, Hot Tub Sex, M/M, OC Shepards, Vanyanto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 05:57:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4553325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jupiter_james/pseuds/jupiter_james
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vanya and Ianto decide to take a trip to the beach for their summer vacation.</p><p>This part of the Tiny Whiskey, Guns, and Money universe</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Than Happier

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JoAsakura](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/gifts).



"Hot. It's fucking hot. Why is it so fucking _hot_? People come here by volunteer? Pah. Americans. In Russia we have Black Sea. Very healthy."

"Even your Russian vacation spots sound depressing. You've been complaining for five hours now about everything from the long drive to the monotonous scenery."

"I did not vote for this vacation. I have right to complain." Vanya slid from the car, bracing his lower back and stretching it with an overly-dramatic groan.

Ianto slid his sunglasses up to his forehead and squinted over the hood of the Bel Air. "You know, for all the stories you've told me about your tough life in Russia, you sure are delicate."

Vanya tilted his head back and downed half of his water bottle in one go. "It is not hot as ovens in Russia."

Ianto grinned, popping the trunk and shouldering half of their luggage. "No, but at least here there's a whole, crystal clear ocean and beach breeze. Hell, it's called Paradise Beach for a reason. You'll be fine once we've got everything in the condo and we're mostly naked on the sand."

Vanya resentfully plucked the rest of the luggage out of the trunk and slammed it down, completely unconvinced with Ianto's excitement. "Red hair people burn in the sun."

"We have SPF seventy."

"Russians don't swim."

"Everyone, including Russians, floats in salt water."

"Laying on beach doing nothing is boring."

"Build a sandcastle."

They shouldered up to the condo, Ianto balancing their belongings haphazardly while he struggled to maneuver the key into the lock. Vanya's shoulders sagged slightly. "You are always so positive. I get angry at you."

"Get as angry as you want, lover. You won't pollute me with your mood when it's eight-five degrees and perfect outside." He kicked the door open and flipped on the hall light. "Hey, this is _awesome_. Check out the view!" He dropped the bags in the hall and walked straight back to the sliding glass doors that opened directly onto a private beach, passing the master bedroom, guest room, large open kitchen, and living room plus dining table. The beach outside the door was all pristine white sand and turquoise water. Hardly a cloud in the sky. "Tell me this isn't a perfect change from the rain and gloom and shitty motels."

Vanya leaned against Ianto's arm, first trying to scowl at the sun, but then he noticed a smattering of tourists lounging down by the water. "So.." he mused, sliding his fingers across Ianto's back just under the bottom hem of his polo shirt. "You will get almost naked like those people all the time, yes?"

"If you need that sort of reward to stop complaining, then, yes," Ianto grinned.

Vanya bolted back to the hallway to dig for their suitcase and held Ianto's green swim trunks with yellow palm leaves on them aloft. "Winners!"

Chuckling, Ianto snatched them from his grip. "These are really fucking ugly. Why did you pick these, of all the bathing suits in the world?"

"Because they are ugly," Vanya answered matter-of-factly, digging for his own horrific trunks. Red hibiscus that clashed alarmingly with his hair amid a lurid sky-blue background. He snapped the waistband with a serious expression. "We go to do this thing."

"You don't want to unpack first?"

"I want to see 'Yanto naked first."

"Fair enough," Ianto said gamely. He walked back to the master bedroom and stripped off his shirt and shorts, pulling on the hideous trunks with a warm smile. He'd have gone for something plain and inoffensive to his eyes if he'd had the chance, but Vanya had been so thoroughly amused with the swimwear and Hawaiian shirts, that the former professor hadn't had the heart to go with his own taste. 

Vanya appeared in the doorway a moment later, tying off the string to his swim trunks and patting his own ass. "I love these bathing suit."

Ianto laughed. "I can tell. Did you find the sunscreen? I might not be ginger like you, but I haven't been in sun like this for years, so I'll fry without it, despite my skin tone." Vanya tossed the bottle to him and he beckoned the Russian closer. "Help me put it on my back." He turned around, shoulders flexing and Vanya took a second to appreciate the view.

Squirting some of the cream into his palms he said, "'Yanto, how do you say, 'thank you for meal' in the Japanese?"

"Hmm? It's 'いただきます.' Why?"

Vanya slathered the lotion along Ianto's back and shoulders, taking his time to massage it into every bit of deep, tawny skin. "Eetahdakimass. Да. Good." And before Ianto could take the bottle to finish the job himself, Vanya held it away and lathered it over his shoulders and arms as well. "This is my job," he reprimanded the taller man.

Ianto checked his laugh at Vanya's authoritative tone, but wouldn't stop him for the world. The Russian's calloused hands gently working over his body in an almost reverent manner felt heavenly. Nearly sexually arousing, but not quite, since Vanya appeared to be taking the task of preventing sunburn seriously. Though, when he instructed Ianto to turn around, the former professor couldn't resist leaning down for a meaningful kiss as he took the bottle of sunscreen and started his own exploration of the stockier man's chest and arms. By the time he pulled away, Vanya was engrossed enough to sway towards him, chin tilting up for another kiss. "You can thank me for the meal later," Ianto murmured against the Russian's forehead, "but it's not long until sunset, so I want to get out there."

Preparations were completed with much more rapidity after that, Ianto gathering their towels, and Vanya happily shaking out the raft he'd bought to inflate. Ianto raised an eyebrow. "Is that an alligator?"

"Yes. Very dangerous, alligators. This is manly raft."

"It's a kid's raft," Ianto said dryly.

"Always so critical," Vanya huffed. "You drag me here, so I make fun where I can." He patted the raft proudly.

Ianto waved a hand. "I won't argue with that. You ready?"

"Да. I finish raft outside. I see you're excited. Can almost smell it."

Ianto shrugged. "I haven't been to the beach in probably more than a decade." He pushed the heavy, hurricane-proof glass patio door open and stepped back into the heat. The breeze on that side of the condo cooled the air considerably from the baked parking lot. Both men breathed in a large lungful of the salty air, and even Vanya's expression softened.

"Is nice air," he admitted.

"When I was a kid," Ianto said, smiling at the memory, "my parents would take me to Okinawa in the summer for Golden Week. I probably swam from dawn until dusk. Couldn't have paid me to get off the beach. Some nights we would go out on a boat to catch cuttlefish and grill them. We stopped going when I was about twelve or so because of my dad's work transfer that took us back to Hokkaido, but I remember it all vividly to this day. Missed it." He laid their towels down just above the tide line, anchoring them to the sand with the small cooler icing their beers. 

"I like hearing your memories," Vanya said, flopping down onto his towel to finish inflating his raft. "You talk of them very kindly."

Ianto flipped open the cooler and pulled out two beers before sitting down. "Yeah, well, I recently realized that those memories are the only real good ones that I've got. Once I came to the US for college and then stayed... I just... I dunno. I stopped making them." He draped his forearms over his knees, staring out at the small waves breaking on the sand. "All I did was study and then work and every day was the same. I mean, I went out with my friends, had parties, dated a few guys, but nothing noteworthy. Not one single experience I can point to that adds to those irreplaceable memories of my childhood. I guess it's like I did a lot to make myself a better man, but nothing to make myself a happier one."

After a thoughtful moment, Vanya said, "some people think better _is_ happier."

"Do _you_ think that?"

Vanya sipped his beer before answering. "No. What I think is a man who thinks better is happier is a man who doesn't remember what happy is."

"That's why I want to change," Ianto said with feeling. "I don't want my best days to have ended before I could take a piss standing up. But I also realized that I'm not the type of person to have the most memorable experiences by myself. I could go off alone tomorrow and climb Mt. Everest or something, but it still wouldn't be the same as catching cuttlefish because I didn't have someone important to share it with."

Vanya grinned. "I already knew you were sentimental."

Ianto grinned in response. "Yeah, but you _didn't_ know that you're literally the only person in this whole damn country who's worth anything to me. Whatever destiny brought you here, I'm glad. You were always apologizing for taking me away from my life and fucking it all up, but in reality, I didn't leave a damn thing behind."

"You say your feelings like is so easy," Vanya answered, his voice tinged with admiration and frustration.

Ianto stood and put his beer down, holding a hand out to Vanya to pull him to his feet. "It's not easy," he said, leading them down to the water. "It's terrifying. But you're the type of person who needs the words _and_ the actions. Otherwise you doubt one or the other unless they both match up." He held both of Vanya's hands loosely as he guided them past the breaking waves and into deeper water. "Your life has sucked too much and been too full of people who mean to do you harm for you to be any other way. That's why I talk too much. Hoping that'll you believe some of it."

Vanya drew them to a stop when they were chest deep in the crystal clear water. "That is good of you. I try to work harder on stopping to think you are crazy to stay with me."

Kicking his feet out, Ianto laid back in the water, enjoying the slosh in his ears and the hot sun on his face. "Don't discount my craziness," he teased. "Being crazy together isn't so bad."

"Yes." Vanya carefully mirrored Ianto's lazy back float in the water, keeping his fingers within reach. "You think about a lot of things."

"I do. And I probably over-analyze so many things, but at the same time, I'm positive I've never made the wrong choice in my life. It's also why I'm likely so undereducated in the ways of the world."

"Ha!" Vanya chortled. "Your first lesson was more than most people. Pretty extreme."

"Go big, or go home."

"I like both ideas."

"I concur."

And in the end, despite Vanya's hate of the heat, they stayed at the beach until nearly sunset and a clap of thunder sent them scrambling back towards the condo. They rinsed off in the showers at the top of the small boardwalk and trekked back inside, towels over their shoulders. Vanya's cheeks and shoulders were red from the sun, but not too burned that it probably wouldn't fade overnight. 

"Where is storm with thunder and no clouds?" Vanya asked, peering out the sliding door while Ianto headed to the kitchen to sort through take out menus since they hadn't gone grocery shopping yet.

"It's pretty typical down here," Ianto answered, putting aside the ones that looked good. "Sometimes the thunder carries for miles and you never see any rain, and sometimes the storms come on fast and crazy and end just as quickly. Hey, the seafood restaurant down the street delivers. Says it's all 'catch of the day' stuff, so it's probably really fresh. You have any preferences?"

"People who don't cook can't be picky," Vanya answered, coming up beside him and thumbing through the menus as well.

"Hey, I didn't laugh all that long when you smoked us out of my house just boiling water."

"Your stove. It is too fancy," Vanya answered distastefully.

"I didn't think it was possible to burn water on _any_ stove," Ianto countered with a grin.

"ты имеешь в виду."

Ianto looped his arm over Vanya's shoulders. "It's not fair to say rude things to me in Russian just because your accent's sexy."

"But you _are_ mean," Vanya said, tipping his chin up and raising slightly on his toes for a kiss.

"I know," Ianto said, dropping his voice to the low rumble that always elicited a response from the Russian, except for occasions when Ianto was only doing it to avoid work. "So mean that I'm gonna haul you back outside once the storm is over and fuck you in that ridiculously large Jacuzzi."

"There is hot tub?" Vanya asked with interest, even as he shivered a little at the proclamation. "Why wait? A little sexy danger is good, too. The thunder is far away."

Grinning, Ianto slid his hands down to the round curve of Vanya's ass, squeezing and then heaving him up. Vanya wrapped his legs tightly around Ianto's waist, arms around his shoulders, before diving for another kiss. Manhandling had never been something he enjoyed before, but he had to admit that Ianto swinging him around roughly and dragging him behind the privacy fence on the patio was a fairly large turn-on, especially feeling the length of the professor's erection rubbing against his inner thigh along with the flex of his muscles as he carefully dumped Vanya into the tub before turning back around to turn on the jets to medium force.

Vanya waded in the chest-deep water to the other side where he found a bench to perch on. His wolfish grin eked a matching one from Ianto. "I always want to fuck in hot tub," he said. "Is always in pornos, yes?"

The professor laughed. "I guess so. I simply like seeing you wet." He glided through the water to Vanya and straddled over him, knees on either side of Vanya's thighs on the bench. His eyes widened. "Did you...?" A moment later, Vanya's trunks bubbled to the surface of the water.

"Yeah."

"Baby, you know my style," Ianto smirked, relaxing down into Vanya's lap and rolling his hips forward. He wiggled a little in order to get his own trunks off and they soon popped to the surface near Vanya's. "Told you this vacation was worth it." He slid forward further, skin against skin as he took Vanya's dick in his hand and dipped forward to nip at the Russian's neck when his head lolled back with a groan of pleasure.

"I like this," Vanya admitted breathlessly. "The water... _hng_ and your hands. Is very relaxing."

"That's what I wanted to hear since you don't even know what relaxing is, usually," Ianto answered, stroking Vanya firmly. The Russian gasped and gripped him in return, his other hand grappling behind Ianto's neck tightly. He whined in the back of his throat and Ianto chased the sound across his neck with his lips.

Another distant clap of thunder and then the rain started, pelting them with cold drops. The cold rain mixed with the warm water from the hot tub was a whole extra kind of stimulation that shortly had both Vanya and Ianto gasping into each other's mouths as they jerked themselves off in earnest until they both came one after another. It took several minutes, but Ianto collected himself slowly and grinned at the Russian. "See? Beach vacations are the best."

Vanya spread his arms over the lip of the hot tub with a sly grin like the cat that got the cream. "Sure. This hot tub is nice. The tiny bubbles are very refreshing on the penis."

Ianto laughed and turned over to sit next to him. "You sure do lack poetry. Sometimes I wonder how you ever manage to turn me on."

"You forgot your old lady swim cap, 'Yanto," Vanya barbed back. "Relax."

"Don't make me throw your bathing suit across the yard out there for you to go chase."

Vanya scoffed. "I once walk home from bar in Moscow winter with no pants. You think I'm afraid now, Fancy Haircut?"

"Dunno." Ianto fished Vanya's trunks from the other side of the hot tub, balled them up, and then tossed them down the yard, close to where the crowds came up the wooden steps over the dunes to access their condos.

Vanya laughed and waggled his eyebrows. "Is this a dare?"

Ianto considered it. He and Vanya often teased each other to the point of dares, but up until this point, Ianto was unsure how far the Russian would actually _take_ a dare. Then again, Ianto was usually the first to back down just for the sake of it. Mostly because he was fairly certain Vanya hadn't backed down first a day in his life. He grinned. "I dare you."

Vanya fixed him with an unreadable expression for a minute. Then his expression eased into a smirk. He stood up on the bench. Raised his arms to stretch and leapt into the yard, naked as the day he was born, and stomped across the grass towards several people coming up the steps as he went to retrieve his trunks. He waved the family.

Ianto roared with laughter as the wife grabbed her husband and ran towards their condo, face turned away. Vanya picked up his swim suit and turned back towards the professor, slung the trunks over his shoulder and began belting the Russian national anthem at the top of his lungs.

After a beat, Ianto joined him boisterously. Then they were back inside, laughing, Vanya's face beet red despite his bravado. "We could have both been arrested for public indecency," Ianto chuckled.

Shrugging, Vanya answered, "I protect you in prison. Tell them you are my wife and I won't sell you for cigarettes."

"How kind," Ianto said dryly. "I'd just pay the fine and leave you there if you did that."

"Ah, good. This is true romance."

"You're welcome," Ianto smiled, kissing Vanya's cheek as he passed by to call in an order for their dinner.


End file.
